Mystra
Mystra (pronounced MISS-trah), the Mother of all Magic, was the greater deity who guided the magic that enveloped Toril prior to the Time of Troubles. Mystra tended to the Weave constantly, making possible all the miracles and mysteries wrought by magic and users of magic. She was believed, as was her predecessor Mystryl and successor Midnight, to be the embodiment of the Weave and of magic itself. Mystra's symbol was a ring of seven stars surrounding a rising red mist, spiraling to the heavens, though her older and more often seen symbol was a simple seven-pointed star. Her divine realm resided in Dweomerheart. Worshipers The church of Mystra preserved magical lore so that magic would continue and flourish in the future even if the dominant races of Faerûn were to fall. Its members also searched out those skilled in magic or who had the potential to use it, keeping a close eye on those who were likely to become skilled. Her clerics were encouraged to explore magical theory and create new spells and magic items. Sites dedicated to the goddess were enhanced by the Weave to allow any spell cast by her clerics while in them to be affected by metamagic. I'd say your "walking dead-magic-zone" man would be shunned by clergy of Mystra if near a temple or magic-strong location (get away from here!), and physically prevented from getting too close, by fists if need be. His existence, appearance, and whereabouts would be promptly reported, and higher clergy would seek advice in prayer and by asking any Chosen they could get into contact with. Certain servants of Mystra (see the SECRETS OF THE MAGISTER rulebook I did for 2nd Edition) and all Chosen know how to deal with dead magic zones, and he's small enough to handle. It would take a sufficient sacrifice of silver fire to cancel out the dead magic zone, and this nullification would have nothing to do with the character's wishes (i.e. it's not something a PC would have to beg or pay for, or be left alone to keep if he wanted to retain it). Just killing him would be the "last choice," because doing so might destroy the dead magic zone or anchor it at the site of his death -- but might also, just as easily, free it to 'drift' (towards magic!). So the PC would likely get a personal visit from a Chosen, carefully pumping silver fire into them to nullify the dead magic. A painful experience, but one that would ultimately cleanse their body of all taints, diseases, poisons, spells affecting them, curses, and wounds. And hey, they'd get to meet a Chosen and very much come to the attention and interest of that Chosen, so they might then get offered a task, or friendship, or a swift trip back to Vangey with the Chosen along to assure the Royal Magician that this particular Purple Dragon Knight was okay, now. Mystra's Chosen Mystra also had powerful mortal servants among her ranks of followers, including Elminster, Khelben Arunsun, the Seven Sisters and the mad lich Sammaster. Orders ;Order of the Starry Quill :The Starry Quill was an order of Mystran bards who often worked as information gatherers and rumor-mongers for the church or spent part of their time in designated libraries unearthing magical knowledge and then preserving it for posterity. ;Order of the Shooting Star : The Church of Mystra sponsored an order of rangers, known as the Order of the Shooting Star. These rangers received spells from Mystra and served as long-range scouts and spies for the church, also dealing with magical threats that imposed upon the natural order of things, such as unloosed tanar'ri and baatezu as well as creatures born of irresponsible wizardly experimentation. ;Knights of Mystic Fire :The Church of Mystra also sponsored a knightly order of paladins called the Knights of the Mystic Fire, who were granted their spells by Mystra. They often accompanied members of the clergy on quests to locate lost hoards of ancient magic and also formed the cadre from which the leadership for the small groups of armed forces who guarded Mystra's larger temples and workshops were drawn. History The goddess of magic has had three incarnations over the years. All shared the same role and responsibilities, but they were different in alignment and temperament. Mystryl Mystryl, as her predecessor and first incarnation was called, was the goddess of magic and a chaotic neutral greater deity born during the battle between Shar and Selûne at the dawn of time. Being the goddess of magic, spells, creativity, invention, and knowledge, she was said to have taught the first spellcaster of the Realms. All spells of all types were known to her when their creators constructed them, and her spirit was said to imbue all inventors, authors, songwriters, and artists. She was most venerated by wizards and those who used magic or magical items. She provided and tended the Weave, the conduit that enabled mortals to safely access the raw magic force. Mystryl was killed when she broke her connection of the weave from the Archmage Karsus of Netheril. Karsus, most probably the greatest archmage of Faerun, attempted to cast a twelfth circle spell from the Netherese scrolls. Karsus created a direct link between the goddess of magic and himself, and upon this he learns of the danger of his actions. Mystryl subsequently severed Karsus from the weave entirely and in doing so killed herself, and was reborn almost instantly as Mystra. It was this brief lapse between resurrection however that made the weave lapsed and cease to function. It was in this lapse that the great cities of Netheril fell from the sky, as the magic holding them up was nulled. Mystra Mystra came into being after the previous incarnation sacrificed herself in -339 DR to save Faerûn from the destruction Karsus of Netheril nearly brought upon them. She used as a basis a beautiful peasant girl who was still just learning cantrips but who had the potential of becoming an archmage. She was Lawful Neutral in alignment. During the Time of Troubles, Mystra was killed by the deity Helm for defying the god and trying to climb the Celestial Stairway to the heavens. Her death caused great damage to the Weave, but the young mortal Midnight was chosen to succeed the goddess as the next Mystra — eventually restoring the magic of Toril. More Mystra doesn't seek to shut out or favour entire races or kingdoms or regions or particular power groups in their access to ever-greater magic. She doesn't "play favourites." (Those who protest that the Chosen are her favourites have missed the point: they are her AGENTS rather than a "side" among conflicting mortal power groups.) Mystra does tend to foment rivalries between ambitious or evil mages, because it causes them to work harder at the creative side of magic, and she does tend to more freely disseminate magic among good-aligned casters who cooperate with others (because they will tend to spread magic more swiftly and freely). Mystra wants all races using more and more magic; to her, this is a desirable goal. So is peace, purely because it causes the deaths of fewer magic-using creatures than war. (Others may see these as "good" goals and they may well be...or may not. Even a kind, benevolent Mystra may be weakening or even dooming races by causing them to rely increasingly on magic and not, say, their thews. Only time will tell. It is tempting for a given mortal (both beings in the Realms and scribes here at the Keep) to view individual acts of Mystra in the light of their own personal definitions of good or evil and try to label Mystra in terms of alignment (or say that she's mislabeled in her official alignments, or defies the alignment system). However, this is short-sighted; her impact and pattern of activity can only be viewed over the long run, and HER OWN view of what she's trying to do is even-handed and neutral (and alignment is a description of a particular being's world-view and approach to life, the reasons behind a pattern of acts rather than a list of "dos" and "don'ts". . . at least it was according to Gary Gygax, who created alignment as part of the D&D game, because he and I and some other 'old hand" grognards had a long discussion about this, years and years ago). If I was a Knight of Myth Drannor, I would probably describe Mystra as "neutral with good tendencies" - - but if I was a Zhentarim, I'd probably say she was "neutral tempered with ruthless dislike of some," and if I was a priest of Torm or Helm, I'd say she was "neutral; for if she favoured good, she'd not have suffered the Zhents or Red Wizards to flourish as they did; and if she favoured evil, competing renegade magelords would rule most of the Realms, mustering dragons and worse as allies in an endless struggle to rule us all." Mortals seeking to judge a particular divine act as "in character" or "right" for a deity are playing themselves for fools from the start, because it's very rare (to unheard of) for any mortal to understand the deity, the various motivations and factors weighing into the deity's decisions, and the situation in which the act is being performed sufficiently well to properly judge the act. Or to put it more simply, "most gods are beyond the understanding of most mortals, almost all of the time." (Which is why, after all, some mortals suffer others to carry on careers as priests.) Other Manifestations Mystra's typical manifestation is as a blue-white, pulsing glow on items, beings, or places that the goddess wishes to draw attention to, such as a hidden door or item. She also appears as a slender, graceful, disembodied human female hand outlined in blue-white motes of light that points, gestures, writes, inscribes lines on stone with one finger—often writing the tomb inscription of a powerful dead mage as an obscure clue—or unleashes spells. Mystra has also been known to use agathinons (in natural and magical item forms); devas; maruts; light aasimons; einheriar (former wizards and other prominent users of magic); hope, faith, and courage incarnates; radiant mephits; guardinals of all sorts, hollyphants; gem and metallic dragons (including steel and mercury dragons); pseudodragons; selkies; bluejays; sparrowhawks; white cats, dogs, donkeys, horses, pegasi, unicorns, and mules (all with blue or mismatched eyes); blue and clear gemstones of all sorts; rainbow tourmalines; amarathas; rogue stones; beljurils; and small creatures composed of translucent magical force to demonstrate her approval or disapproval or to send aid to her faithful. All clerics and specialty priests of Mystra receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. All priests of Mystra are granted weaveglow (see below) upon their initiation. Most worshipers of the Lady of Mysteries are human, but all natives of Faerûn who seek to become powerful in magic without benefit of divine aid must at least appease the goddess with sacrifices. (Burning items that have temporarily been enchanted with a spell is the easiest way to do this.) Wizards, especially good wizards, hold her name in special veneration, even if they primarily worship Azuth or some other deity. All wielders of magic and seekers after arcane lore of any race are welcome in the service of Mystra. The hierarchy of the Mystran faith is wide and varied, separating into orders concentrating on one form of magical energy or another. Clerics, specialty priests, wizards, and bards can all he found in its ranks without regard to experience level or origin. The general rule of the Mystran faith is that talent and ability for the job outweighs social rank or legendary feats. Only those clergy members who gain their spells directly from a higher power gain their spells directly from the goddess, but all are welcome within the church's hierarchy. Relations between the various orders and subgroups of the faith are very good. The priests of Mystra are known as Servants of Mystery. Higher level priests, both those with title and lands and legendary adventuring priests, are called Ladies or Lords of Mystery. Titles within the faith vary from temple to temple and follow no standard form across the whole of the church, though most temples are rigidly self-consistent. Mystran temples can be structures of almost any size or style, and some shrines are natural carves or special grottoes. Through the grace of the goddess, Mystran priests who stand in a place sacred to Mystra can cast spells for the maximum possible damage, duration, or extent of effect (their choice of which). Such places include all Mystran temples and shrines, and most private spellcasting chambers. All priests of Mystra can cause their own flesh—all of it, or specific areas, such as a hand—to glow at will with a soft, blue-white radiance as a boon from Mystra. This radiance, known as weaveglow, is enough to read by or to allow a priest to clearly see items and surroundings within 5 feet. Most Mystrans keep this sign of the favor of the goddess secret from nonbelievers. As something mysterious, it is more useful, allowing them, for example, to feign affliction or magical attack. Weaveglow is granted to priests after their initiation, which is often a Starflight ceremony. Dogma: Choice, decision, and knowledge, leavened with a healthy dose of good for the most individuals, are the hallmarks of Mystra's faith. Magic is great power, and it brings with it great responsibility. Mystra's clergy are given the following charge upon aspiring to the faith: "Love magic for itself, not just as a ready weapon to reshape the Realms to your will. Learn when not to use your magic, and you will have learned true wisdom. Play with magic and learn how best to wield it, but not when the price is paid by others. Strive to use magic less and less as your powers develop, not more and more; often the threat and promise of Art outstrips its performance. "Remember always that magic is an Art, the Gift of the Lady, and that those who can wield it are privileged in the extreme. Conduct yourself humbly, not proudly, while being mindful of this. "Use magic deftly and efficiently; eschew carelessness and recklessness in the unleashing of Art. When magic imperils you, hide it or hurl it away into other planes rather than destroy it, for any destruction of Art is a sin. "Seek always both to learn new magic and to create new magic, but experimenting to learn to craft something oneself is better than merely buying scrolls or hiring tutors. Exult more in creation than in hurling spells, and ensure that your creations are shared with others and so outlive you. Those who succeed in this last and in maturing into true wisdom and consideration for the greater balance of things in Faerûn in the use of Art are most favored in the eyes of the Lady and will serve her beyond death as beings who have become one with magic and live on in it forever." Day-to-Day Activities: Mystran clergy work hard to preserve all magical lore in secret libraries, private safeholds, well-guarded research laboratories, and small, hidden stashes so that magic flourishes in the future regardless of what befalls the thinking races of Faerûn or the powers of the planes. Mystrans also search out beings skilled in spell use, seeking to keep watch on the identities, powers, and behavior of individuals likely to become magic-wielders of importance. Not everyone can find old magic of note, but all clergy of Mystra can devise their own new magic upon gaining sufficient experience, and they are expected to do so. In this way magical study remains a growing, vibrant thing, and magic does not merely become a handy power to serve rulers and engineers as a tool to tame the Realms, but remains a thing of wonder. Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: In Waterdeep, the church of Mystra celebrates Gods' Day on the 15th of Marpenoth, the anniversary of Midnight's elevation to divinity as the new Mystra, with a huge festival centered around the House of Wonder that ends in magical fireworks that go long into the night. This holiday is being gradually adopted by shrines and temples of Mystra throughout Faerûn. On the whole, though, the worship of Mystra tends to be a personal thing rather than a series of calendar rituals. For some mages whom the goddess counts as devout believers, it never goes beyond a whispered prayer of thanks to her with each spell they cast coupled with some thought as to the moral consequences of the use of this or that spell. For Mystra, that is enough. The goddess gains both delight and strength, however, from beings who do more in reverence to her. Two ceremonies of personal significance stand out: Starflight and Magefire. Starflight is often used as an initiation when an individual joins the priesthood of Mystra or a celebration when two worshipers are wed. It is a special ceremonial cooperative magic worked by several priests that empowers one of the faithful to fly so long as stars are visible in the sky. This can make long journeys easy, provide a joyous change of pace, serve as a special means of looking over the land, achieve privacy for important discussions, place one of the faithful a safe distance away from precious things in order to try hurling spectacular spells, or provide a very special beginning for one's marriage. Magefire is renewal; it is the exciting feeling of great magical power surging through one's body, blazing out as flickering blue fire as it spills forth, cleansing and renewing. With enough clergy powering it, this cooperative ceremonial magic can heal all sorts of fell conditions. Mystrans describe it as "the most blissful feeling one can know." It is spectacular to watch. The Mystran to he affected lies down on the ground and the circle of celebrants pours power into the worshiper—until his or her body, blazing with blue fire, slowly rises to hang in midair above those fueling the ceremony, humming and crackling with the power of the magic surging through it. Magefire often ends in a Starflight ceremony, provided the celebrants intone the correct incantation. The Hymn to the Lady is a solemn ritual performed at funerals and magemoots, that calls up visions of dead mages and Mystran clergy as a plainsong dirge is intoned by the living clergy present. Mystra often uses these visions to insert her own guiding scenes. A modified Magefire ceremony may be employed at the end of the Hymn to raise the honored dead aloft into a floating pyre on high. Major Centers of Worship: On the wooded eastern verge of Elventree stands a ruined, overgrown stone hall known as the House of Mysteries. It is reportedly the strongest place of power to Mystra in all Faerûn (along with the nearby Harper refuge, the House of the Harp). Those who enter the House of Mysteries say that the inside is like a sound-eating dark void where soft voices whisper and glowing, varicolored motes of light drift about. No spell can illuminate this darkness, and out of it comes the Voice of the Goddess (or a senior devotee) answering questions with cryptic advice, identifying items apparently without need of spells, and (rarely) altering supplicants with spells that come "out of nowhere." Word of such puissant divine aid and guidance has spread swiftly across Faerûn, and wizards from distant realms indeed have come to Elventree in search of grandeur. The largest temple to Mystra in all the Realms is located in Mt. Talath in Halruaa. It occupies an entire cavern complex, and its high priestess, Lady of Mystery Greila Sontoin, is very old but still capable of performing powerful ceremonies and casting mighty spells. The grand temple of the complex is open to all who want to worship, but the storerooms and libraries are only open to Halruaans of proven good intentions and of Mystra's faith. Non-Halruaans are sometimes admitted to certain libraries and halls deemed to contain nonsensitive items and reference works, but usually such admittance is at the price of a very steep admission fee. Affiliated Orders: Most wizards and bards in the Mystran church are members of the clergy and belong to no special order, though the church of Mystra has close ties with Those Who Harp (the Harpers), an organization working for good and against the rise of great powers throughout Faerûn. Those bards who are not clergy members belong to the Children of the Starry Quill and often work as information gatherers and rumormongers for the church or spend part of their time in designated libraries unearthing magical knowledge and then preserving it for posterity. Some members of the Starry Quill are also Harpers. The church also sponsors a knightly order of paladins and a small order of rangers. The paladins, the Knights of the Mystic Fire, are granted their spells by Mystra. They often accompany members of the clergy on quests to locate lost hoards of ancient magic and also form the cadre from which the leadership for the small groups of armed forces who guard Mystra's larger temples and workshops is drawn. The rangers, known as the Order of the Shooting Star, also receive their spells from Mystra. They serve as long-range scouts and spies for the church and also deal with magical threats that threaten the natural order of things, such as unloosed tanar'ri and baatezu and creatures born of irresponsible wizardly experimentation. Priestly Vestments: The ceremonial garb of Mystran priests is simple blue robes that are sometimes trimmed with white. They are accented by a cloak of deep blue in colder climates. Some form of headgear is required, though this may range from a simple blue skullcap for the scholarly orders of the Sword Coast North to wide, ornate, blue hats and helms in southern lands. Mystra's symbol was a blue-white star before the coming of the Avatars and now is a circle of stars in a ring, with a red mist rising toward (or flowing from) the center. Both symbols are still in use. Mystran priests are very tolerant of the older symbology and beliefs in Mystra, as they feel that one may only press forward by learning about the past. They let established symbols of the old Mystran faith stand, but when creating new symbols, they always use the new sigil of their goddess. Adventuring Garb: In the field, priests of Mystra wear armor and bear the new symbol of Mystra on their shields as a display of their faith. If armor is inappropriate, they dress in the fashion of the land they inhabit appropriate for the inclement weather. Specialty Priests Dweomerkeepers REQUIREMENTS: Intelligence 14, Wisdom 12 PRIME REQ.: Intelligence, Wisdom ALIGNMENT: LN, CN, NG WEAPONS: All bludgeoning (wholly Type B) weapons ARMOR: Any MAJOR SPHERES: All, astral, chaos, charm, combat, creation, divination, elemental, guardian, healing, law, necromantic, numbers, protection, summoning, thought, time, travelers, wards MINOR SPHERES: Animal, plant, sun, weather MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics, plus all items normally usable by wizards except scrolls REQUIRED PROFICIENCIES: Spellcraft BONUS PROFICIENCIES: Astrology Dweomerkeepers have a +2 bonus to their saving throws against any sort of magic. Dweomerkeepers function normally in both dead magic and wild magic areas. Once per day, dweomerkeepers can detect magic. The ability lasts for a turn, and the dweomerkeeper has a 10% chance per level to recognize if a certain type or certain sphere of magic is present. The ability functions otherwise as the 1st-level wizard spell detect magic. Dweomerkeepers can read magic as the 1st-level wizard spell and can also read the different mage-script used in the South in Mulhorand and elsewhere (a script usually unreadable with read magic. This does not enable them to cast wizard spells, merely to understand all magical writings. At 3rd level, dweomerkeepers gain the ability to cast Nystul's magical aura (as the 1st-level wizard spell) once a day. The faithful refer to this ability as Mystra's lingering touch. Dweomerkeepers need only touch an appropriate object to use this ability. At 5th level, dweomerkeepers are able to cast dispel magic (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once a day. At 7th level, dweomerkeepers can cast priest spells faster than other priests. Their casting time on all priest spells of one round or less are reduced by 3 (for example, a casting time of 7 would be reduced to 4). Spells taking more than one round to cast still require the usual amount of time. Priest spells cast by a dweomerkeeper always have a casting time of at least 1. At 9th level, dweomerkeepers are able to air walk (as the 5th-level priest spell) or convey the ability to air walk to a mount they are riding once a day. At 15th level, dweomerkeepers become immune to the effects of any three specific spells they choose. Mystran Spells 3rd Level Starflight* (Alteration) Sphere: Elemental Air, Travelers Range: 1O yards Components: V,S Duration: Special Casting Time: 2 turns Area of Effect: One to three worshipers of Mystra Saving Throw: None This cooperative spell requires at least two Mystran priests casting the spell simultaneously. For every two additional Mystran clergy members (of any class) who participate in the ceremony, another Mystran worshipper can be affected, to a maximum of three worshipers. Other participating clergy have to either cast starflight or donate three spell slots of magical energy to the spell. Clergy who donate energy lose three levels of spells from memory as if they had been cast. Portions of a spell donated result in the loss of the whole spell as if it were cast. This spell bestows on its recipient the capability of magical flight. It empowers a worshiper of Mystra to move vertically and horizontally at MV 24 (A), and at MV 12 (A) if ascending and MV 36 (B) if diving sharply. The spell recipient can swoop and rise with a mere thought and can carry up to his own body weight along in flight. It lasts as long as stars are visible in the sky, normally ending with sunrise, but possibly terminating earlier because of a storm or heavy fog. 4th Level Anyspell (Alteration) Sphere: Charm, Creation Range: 0 Components: V, S Duration: Special Casting Time: 7 Area of Effect: The caster Saving Throw: None This spell allows the caster to read and then later cast any wizard spell of 1st to 5th level. Such a spell si readable via a read magic ability confered with the casting of anyspell, but only one spell can be read and cast for each casting of anyspell. Merely reading the titles of spells on scrolls or in spell books to find a desired spell does not exhaust the magic of the anyspell; an entire spell has to be read. Once anyspell is cast and a wizard spell is read, the wizard spell is retained in the priest's mind until the priest casts it. Such wizard spells are cast as if by a wizard of the same level as the casting priest, except that the user of an anyspell needs no material components to work the wizard spell. While the priest has the wizard spell in mind, she or he cannot pray for a spell to replace the still-pending anyspell. In effect, one 4th-level spell slot is "lost" until the wizard spell is cast, at which point the duration of anyspell comes to an end. Note that in order to make effective use of this spell, the priest has to borrow the spell book of a wizard friend or use a found wizard scroll. (Priests of Mystra are not otherwise able to use wizard scrolls.) Using a scroll in this fashion uses up the spell read from the scroll. Magefire* (Abjuration, Necromancy) Sphere: Healing, Necromantic, Protection Range: 10 yards Components: V, S Duration: Permanent Casting Time: Two turns, plus one turn per additional effect desired Area of Effect: One worshiper of Mystra Saving Throw: None This cooperative spell requires at least two Mystran priests casting the spell simultaneously. For every additional Mystran clergy member (of any class) who participates in the ceremony, another restorative benefit can be empowered. Other participating clergy can either cast magefire or donate four spell levels of magical energy to the spell. Clergy who donate energy lose four spell levels of spells from memory as if they had been cast. Portions of a spell donated result in the loss of the whole spell as if it were cast. With only two casters, this spell works as a neutralize poison, cure disease, and a remove curse. For each additional clergy participating, another benefit is added and the ceremony takes another turn to complete. Benefits always take effect at the combined level of all the spell's participants. The additional benefits are, in order: cure blindness or deafness, heal, regenerate, and dispel magic. Additional participants past this point enable any effect to be repeated (if a dispel magic fails, for instance) or allows a special fell condition to be healed or dispelled at the DM's discretion. 6th Level Wondrous Recall (Alteration, Enchantment/Charm) Sphere: Charm, Creation Range: 0 Components: V, S Duration: Instantaneous Casting Time: 9 Area of Effect: The caster Saving Throw: None This spell enables the caster to bring back into memory two duplicates of the last spell cast before the wondrous recall in order to enable that spell to be cast again twice. A cast wondrous recall appears as two phantom spells that can be carried in addition to the normal spell load of the caster. Each of these "extra" spells can be unleashed through a silent act of will a casting time of 1 and no need for material components. Casting these spells does not allow the priest to exceed the normal casting limitations of one spell being enacted in a round, however. If the caster so desires, one of the recalled spells can precisely duplicate in efficacy (hit points of damage done, area of effect, etc.) the original spell from which the recall copied its phantom spells or—if this exact duplicate is the second recalled spell to be unleashed—its recalled twin. A priest may only carry in mind one cast wondrous recall (that is, two phantom spells) and one uncast wondrous recall at a time. Prayers for more than one wondrous recall are never granted and attempts to cast a wondrous recall while one is still in effect result in the caster being feebleminded (as the 5th-level wizard spell of the same name). Wondrous recall cannot recall 7th-level or greater spells. 7th Level Spell Ward (Abjuration) Sphere: Protection Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: 1 round/level Casting Time: 1 round Area of Effect: One being Saving Throw: None This powerful magic confers upon the caster or a single living touched spell recipient complete personal immunity to one specific, named wizard spell of each level (for example, lightning bolt, not just any lightning spell), which has to be determined during casting. In addition, a spell ward affords protection against any one form of damage of both natural and magical origin (typical forms are cold, electricity, fire, acid, rot, heat, life-energy drain, and poison). However, a spell ward cannot prevent the contraction of any disease. Casters who use this spell on themselves can—at an immediate cost of 1d6 points of damage to themselves—transfer the protection of the ward to another being through touch. (Unaware or unwilling recipients require a successful attack on AC 10 to touch.) Such a transfer does not affect the duration of the ward; only the remaining time of protection is gained. No second transfer can be made, and a being who was not the spell's caster cannot transfer a spell ward to anyone. Spell ward does not work on automatons (such as golems) or undead creatures. El in Hell What can be of value to everyone interested in running D&D play involving the Nine Hells or writing future Realms fiction ditto is running through some of the specific points of contention. Not to prove anyone right or wrong, but to give a glimpse of the reasoning behind the design decisions. First, the Nine Hells as portrayed. Simply put, what you see in El in Hell matches not just PGtF, but the 3e Manual of the Planes (the official rules of the D&D game, which I’m bound by as a creator; you can do what you like in your home campaign, but *I* can’t when writing WotC products). Aside from adding the Blood War and making minor urban renewal changes to the Bronze Citadel, everything you read in the Manual of the Planes about Avernus and Nessus is as I originally put them into the D&D game, from the very names of both, to the basic concept of Avernus, unchanged through all editions of the game and game lines, that Avernus was the uppermost and most chaotic (least tightly governed and ordered) layer of Hell, where Tiamat could be found, the outcast archdevils who weren’t Lords of the Nine lurked and schemed, and all manner of non-native-to-the-Hells visiting creatures could be met with, in a tortured landscape of rivers of blood and a generally dry and rocky terrain, with few green growing plants and much dog-eat-dog hunting and battle. When I wrote El in Hell, PGtF hadn’t yet been published, but the Manual of the Planes (which Jeff Grubb had shown me the text of before publication for my suggestions was then a paid WotC lore consultant, as he’d done for the first Manual of the Planes) had been, and I was editorially instructed to stick to it in any details of the Nine Hells. “This and only this is official, right now,” were among the words used. I can assure all scribes that many of the details folk have wrangled over in the thread were specifically hashed out, between myself and several games designers (WotC has a revolving-membership triad called the Rules Council that determines what’s official, and again, like it or not, that’s what we creatives are stuck with) as well as fiction editors. I do take issue with comments in the thread regarding the Nine Hells as being primarily fleshed out in Planescape products. Simply untrue, as any objective examination of my original DRAGON articles will show. In short, I was writing about a place I already “knew.” (Over the years, several editors customarily ‘ran’ all mentions of the Nine Hells that were going to be published in Planescape materials ‘by me’ for my comments, because although I was a freelancer rather than a staffer, I was considered ‘the’ expert on the place, a post grandly titled: “The Crazy Hells Guy” or just “The Crazy as Hell Guy.”) In my opinion, Planescape materials are often (because of the ‘give us funky adventure stuff, and none of the boring stuff’ design philosophy that reigned at the time, and the absence of outlets such as web enhancements for publishing the boring-but-necessary foundation stuff) inferior to some of the root materials they drew on, because when examining them I see precious few balanced ecologies in the Outer Planes. How do devils ever get enough to drink? Where do their droppings go? What causes changes in the weather in the Hells? (And so on.) I provided biological details of the effects of the Styx and the Lethe, but in Plaenescape products, such things were simply tossed aside to make room for the next cool battle encounter. I don’t mind if someone substitutes THEIR preferences for the Styx and the ‘what eats what’ food chains, but as a designer I DO mind when such things are omitted entirely. We were publishing official products, and official products should clear up more rules gaps and controversies than they create. If the excuse for everything is ‘because God X lives there and wants conditions to be that way,’ fine, but then the product should tell me WHY God X prefers those conditions. If some hardy mortals establish dwellings in the Nine Hells, as we're told in the rules they do, what’s it like to live there, day after day (rather than just invading with a band of adventurers on a military expedition)? We discuss such things. Believe me, we discuss such things. (One of my pet amusements, when visiting the old TSR in Lake Geneva, was lunching at various restaurants in surrounding places like Elkorn, and watching the faces of nearby diners as they overheard some of the things we were saying.) Here’s some of the reasoning that went into ELMINSTER IN HELL. I decided to use the outcast archdevil Nergal (I borrowed the name from mythological sources of devils’ names, as I did for many of the devils), which I’d created and portrayed as one of the most powerful outcast devils in my DRAGON articles, as my main villain. I’ve said elsewhere why the novel took the shape it did, with most of the battle going on inside Elminster’s head, so I’ll just recap it VERY briefly here: I didn’t think I could do a good full-length novel of devils really being themselves without repeatedly offending against the WotC Code of Conduct. In short, if it was all physical confrontations, we’d very shortly be wallowing in bestiality, rape, devourings alive, grotesque tortures involving fistfuls of gnawing maggots thrust into eyeballs and brains, and so on and on. The editors would then be forced to censor, writing the book would take a lot of extra time that none of us had to spare then, and the result would be a deeply-flawed book unsatisfying to readers who wanted all the gore as well as to everyone else. Which brings us to plot mechanics. Elmonster began this thread by asking, “Why Mystra had to send Simbul and Halaster to rescue Elm? Why she couldn't have done it herself? Or why couldn't she just give Elminster enough power, so he could slay Nergal himself?” Let’s dispose of the second question first. As a Chosen of Mystra, Elminster has a degree of independence from Mystra. He can WILLINGLY agree to accept augmentation of his power, IF she can reach him to give some, but he’s darn near the limits of his mortal frame right now, something I spent an entire book exploring (the 1995 Realms novel SHADOWS OF DOOM). To give him ‘enough’ to hand their horns back to archdevils and legions of lesser devils would simply have destroyed him; to give Elminster much more than he has now, in the physical twilight of his years, would render him magically near-helpless, as it did in Shadows. That brings us back to Elmonster’s first question: why Mystra had to use proxies rather than doing the rescue herself. Which also brings on board The Simbul’s (the scribe, not my character :} ) comments on plot, and Shemmy’s dissatisfaction at not seeing Mystra “get her head handed to her.” That comment of Shemmy’s frankly puzzles me, because she DOES get her head handed to her, very swiftly: as she slaughters many, many lesser devils, the various warring devils all over the plane notice this and start to gather against her - - and she’s promptly forced to flee. One side note on this: no, even if Bel did exist in this conception of the Hells, he could never have been “moving the plane itself to smack” anyone around: by the very nature of Avernus, it’s the most weakly-ruled of the layers, NOT under the absolute dominion of anyone. It has to be that way, or all of the outcast devils would have disappeared long ago (eliminated by any absolute planar ruler). Moreover, Bel would be the most powerful Lord of the Nine, not the least, because he would capture all visitors to Hell and be able to use them against his fellow Lords. Believe me, designers have discussed this over and over, down the years. No one wanted a static Hell, and the basic D&D game concept won’t permit it. Remember the 1st Edition Players Handbook with its full-page illo of ‘A Paladin In Hell’? Such forays would never occur if the entire resources of the plane can swfitly be mustered to flatten any intruder - - and the same rule governs all Planescape material; any plane, no matter how inhospitable, must permit adventurers to intrude and have survival time therein to do things. Nor is there really an “infinite” number of devils, as was discussed in the thread; repeatedly designers have agreed that by that hyperbole they really mean ‘effectively infinite from the viewpoint of a single mortal entity,’ because no matter how powerful, a mortal entity can’t kill or conquer ’em fast enough to keep pace with reinforcements arriving to defy that mortal. The Blood War is endless (in the aligned planes concept; check out BEYOND COUNTLESS DOORWAYS from Monte Cook and friends for a non-aligned planar view) because new fiends are constantly being generated from souls. We all have our own mental concepts of what particular deities can and can’t do. Shemmy thought I portrayed Mystra as far too powerful, whereas The Simbul holds the opinion that I ‘played her stupid’ to make the plot work (she had no need to enter the Nine Hells at all). Well, as the creator of Mystra, I have an opinion too. ;} First of all, let’s dispose of the idea that a hellbound Elminster can freely contact Mystra at will. One of the established limits on Mystra’s power is that she’s ‘blind’ to her Chosen if they desire it. Another is that Mystra’s power extends only so far as the Weave does. Within Realmspace, Mystra is the most powerful deity of all (excepting Ao), or would be if Ao hadn’t limited her power by vesting some of it in her Chosen (to prevent utter chaos ensuing if Mystra went mad, or just on a whim decided to trash things, drifted into tyranny power corrupts absolutely, or somehow happened in the Avatar trilogy became the captive of another entity). On Toril, Mystra and Chauntea are the most powerful deities: Chauntea IS the land and all of its natural processes (as opposed to partial aspects of them, such as storms or the emotions and deeds of sentient inhabitants of the planet), and Mystra embodies the Weave, which can (roughly) be defined as the natural forces, and energy flows and cycles, of planetary life (the Shadow Weave being the ‘dark’ or return flows of the cycle). To use a slightly clumsy real-world analogy, Mystra is the brain observing and in small ways controlling the heart, the Weave is the heart and the arteries, and the Shadow Weave is the veins. Mystra can certainly sense the opening of a rift between Realmspace and elsewhere. In some cases, entities close to a rift can see through it and even fire missile weapons or cast spells through it, but this is seldom reliable activity; in almost all cases, mortal or divine, one is working “into” rather than “through” the rift. So Mystra in most cases can’t “look through the rift” and determine anything at all about Elminster’s whereabouts or situation when he’s in the Nine Hells. The rift Troy posited and that I inherited (like any planar rift) causes a violent collision between, and a roiling mixing of, the energy flows of Toril and Avernus. Wild magic will be everpresent, and so will a natural tendency for the fabrics of both planes to try to knit themselves together again, sealing the breech (usually after a lot of stuff has leaked through). This process was what Elminster was trying to aid by casting spells at the breech: he knew they would be twisted by the planar fabric and their raw energy used to aid the closure of the rift. Again, I’m speaking now of what designers have discussed and agreed upon, over the years. If you cleave to a different view, be aware that the implications of disagreeing with ‘self-sealing’ is that there will be no stable planes anywhere - - INCLUDING any Prime Material Plane setting. Everything will be like those old Doctor Strange comics where the landscape is a crazy-quilt of everchanging hues and forces, with no consistent rules of magic or physics or life cycles. Not a landscape most gamers would want to try to adventure in - - or, if it’s run properly, would their characters be able to survive it for long. To Mystra, trying to ‘see through’ the rift and determine anything at all about Elminster after he’s been sucked through it, would be akin to (clumsy real-world analogy time again) staring into the high-beam headlights of an approaching vehicle of unfamiliar make on a rainy night and trying to identify just who is sitting in the back seat of that conveyance. Elminster isn’t calling on the Weave of Toril to power his spells once he’s in the Nine Hells. Like every mortal spellcaster or wielder of a magic item, he’s calling on tiny amounts of borrowed power of the Weave stored within himself (or within an item) to work their specified magical effects, until they ‘run out.’ As a Chosen, Elminster DOES carry a tiny ‘cycle of the Weave’ within himself, yes, and it’s spending some of that to send it drifting back through the planes of existence to rejoin the parent Weave that carries his ‘calling to Mystra that he needs help’ message. He can’t tell her where he is or what’s happening to him, he can only alert her to his desperate need for aid. This process works far more speedily if the entity you’re trying to reach ‘thinks of you’ and thus attunes their attention to your slow, very faint call (hence the scenes of various Chosen puzzling over sudden thoughts of Elminster). Aside: if a mortal wizard studies to regain spells, or a sorcerer regains magical energies, while in Avernus or any other Outer Planes, he or she is in effect calling on the ‘Weave’ of that plane rather than that of their home plane. The spells they gain may have subtle differences, both when cast on the Outer Plane and if carried back to their home plane and cast there. When Mystra does become aware of Elminster’s need, she tries to find him by homing in on that part of the Weave he holds (again, something well established in Realmslore that he or any other Chosen can hide from Mystra if they want to; of course, Elminster in this situation very much doesn’t want to). Mystra is aware that he’s in great danger and so is the power he holds, that could be ‘tainted’ by an archdevil and therefore permanently lost to her, or return to her bringing an insidious diabolical influence with it that she can’t eradicate (which would be a fatal weakness when archdevils detect it, and become aware that they can influence her, and thus the Weave, and thus all life in Realmspace, in this manner). She’s also aware that by entering the Hells she’s putting herself in great danger, but she believes the danger to herself will be less if the rescue is accomplished very swiftly. She believes she is the only being with enough power to accomplish that, and servitors can’t hope to do anything except fail. So she acts. (The ‘why don’t you send Azuth?’ question is answered by the old American ‘you don’t risk the President and the Vice-President by putting them on the same airplane’ thinking: if you consider the safety of magic in Realmspace first, you as Mystra CAN’T send Azuth.) So Mystra, admittedly an inexperienced replacement in her portfolio (I’ll get to The Simbul’s arguments on that topic later), and influenced by her inherited-from-her-predecessor fierce fondness for El (that drives her to get to him FAST because he needs her) and by her own ‘I feel lost without the guidance of the old goat’ feelings, enters Hell. Mystra’s presence in Avernus, by the very nature of WHAT she is, is an attempt to bring the Weave into the Nine Hells. She has the personal power to do so, but as the Weave of Realmspace clashes with the natural cycles of Baator, the roiling causes the opening of many rifts, through which some of Toril ‘leaks’ into the Hells, and some of the Hells (read: lots and lots of unwanted devils) ‘leaks’ into Toril (Realmspace, really, but the contact point is Toril itself). The longer Mystra stays, the more this will go on, and the more the Realms are endangered. At the same time, Nergal is in Elminster’s mind and Elminster is in Nergal’s (SPOILER note: El of course defeats Nergal in the end because Nergal has seized so many of El’s memories that his force of will is weakened by the vulnerabilities and human qualities El’s memories carry), and Mystra realizes she has to be very careful what she does - - and that she lacks the experience and time to do the task properly. DDH_101 picked up on this and commented on it. So Mystra retreats, knowing she needs The Simbul (who loves Elminster and will, yes, go through Hell for him :} and who’s one of the most clear-headed, ruthless, accomplished fighters-with-magic Mystra knows) to at least buy time for her to properly rescue Elminster. She needs to deflect the arousal and involvement of the one other Lord of the Nine who will care enough to get involved so long as Elminster and the attempt to rescue him is confined to Avernus: Asmodeus. (The other Lords of the Nine are charged to defend their own layers of Hell; watching Avernus get torn apart is little more than free entertainment for them, unless Mystra’s invading forces go deeper.) Calling on her inherited memories of what befell Elminster in SHADOWS OF DOOM and many other titanic contests of magic, she seizes upon Halaster’s insanity as the ‘subtle blade’ that might well affect Asmodeus just long enough to snatch Elminster out of the Nine Hells. The Simbul put together a very amusing ‘short version’ of El in Hell, showing how Mystra needn’t ever have left Dweomerheart to rescue Elminster, and none of the events in ELMINSTER IN HELL needed to happen. Well, to quote two old saws: “There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip,” and “No battle plan ever survived engagement with the enemy.” Mystra’s 18-mile-range sensing/remote communications hold true WITHIN THE WEAVE, not in Avernus, where the Weave is more like an aura folded tightly around her. She knows El is somewhere in Hell and goes there hoping she can then ‘see’ him readily, yes. She can ‘feel’ that he’s close, on Avernus, but can’t immediately and infallibly use her remote sensing, because not only is she under attack by clouds of devils, the Weave isn’t operating reliably except very close around her. Certainly she can work magics to try to snatch Elminster elsewhere - - except she dare not expose herself to Nergal (who’s apparently winning the El/Nergal mental battle) in doing so, and thanks to the Weave-link between herself and her Chosen, that’s what she’ll be doing no matter how careful she is with that Miracle spell. She can’t depend on the reliability of the Weave (and therefore of her Alter Reality/Miracle), remember, and can feel this as she’s fighting. If she sat in Dweomerheart and tried to just ‘reach in’ to the Nine Hells and work all of this from afar, she’d feel that unreliability instantly, too. Again, this is something designers have discussed many times, down the years, and come to various agreements on that share this similarity: ‘home ground’ (being on your own plane) brings an advantage. It has to be this way, or we’d have no books full of glorious planes and sizzling gods to sell you: the fastest divine gunslinger would have wiped out everyone else long ago (reaching into random planes and using their “irresistable” divine abilities on other deities before said deities could do the same to them), leaving us planes of uninhabited, desolate death for us to describe, and one absolute god, a.k.a. Last God Standing (hence, no free will, and no opportunities for adventure: we’d all just be robots carrying out our little part in a script, unable to even contemplate breaking free to do anything else). I’m not going to discuss the ‘Halaster factor’ affecting Asmodeus in any detail due to NDA prohibitions (no, SiriusB, please don’t ask :} ), but let’s wrap up the healing of Elminster and then turn to ‘Mystra as naive dummy.’ Yes (ignoring Shar’s little bid in the interests of not putting everyone to sleep whilst I drone on and on), of COURSE Mystra could magically heal Elminster and whisk him home. What she can’t do is tinker with his mind (well-established-in-Realmslore separation between the Chosen and Mystra again, something I put there deliberately to keep the Chosen from becoming ‘angels’ or anything akin to angels), so she needs someone who loves him and will ‘guide him in healing himself’ by taking him to see the right places and people to let him self-heal. The old Mystra had that love, but the new one wants El as a friend, not a half-brain-dead hangdog wannabe lover, so she lets The Simbul do the work. The Simbul (again, the scribe, not my character :}) disagrees with my interpretation of Mystra’s abilities. While it’s true that Mystra’s inherited portfolio has an INT of this and a WIS of that, the D&D game posits deities who aren’t all-knowing and mentally infallible (or there’d be no strife among deities at all, because all of them could foresee how everything would turn out, so again every being would be following a script or remaining static, with no free will and no room for adventure). Time and again we’ve seen D&D gods who are very like the Greek and Roman gods: supersized humans, who have exaggerated flaws as well as exaggerated powers. The Realms, as a D&D setting, must necessarily be no different. The Avatar trilogy, my Shadows of the Avatar trilogy, Prince of Lies, Crucible, and my Elminster In Hell and Elminster’s Daughter have all shown us divine fallibility. (As have many other Realms novels, with Finder and Lolth and so on and on and on.) It’s an integral part of D&D, like it or not. The mortal Ariel Manx (Midnight) ‘put on’ that keen intelligence and that great wisdom like a cloak; stats aside and ‘going by’ just what we read in Realms fiction, it’s clear that she lacked such stature as a mortal, beforehand. The Weave and exposure to Azuth and the Chosen swiftly elevated her intelligence and made her stagger under the weight of accumulated memories, but we’ve all known brilliant, long-lived individuals who forget things, get confused, go off on mental tangents at inappropriate times, and so on. The mortal Midnight is no different - - and along with all the overwhelming power and distractions (she’s still exulting in just ‘riding the flow of the Weave,’ like a skier going down a mountain, something her predecessor got over literally ages ago), she got a huge dose (under constant reminder) of inferiority and lack of confidence. Her predecessor did all this, but she didn’t. She knows how things are supposed to be done, but she hasn’t actually done them herself. Give me three hours, and I can thoroughly explain to you how to disassemble my tractor - - but I doubt most of you, after those three brain-wearying hours, could then go ahead and take the thing apart without any confusion or breaking anything or head-scratching UNLESS you’d done such things yourself already. As Nergal found, ‘borrowed’ memories aren’t the same as actually doing something yourself. Myself, I’d say Mystra could go on learning where her own mental furniture is (and falling over a lot of it in the process) for at least twenty years of Realms time. If Shar manages to kill off some key Chosen or Azuth erupts or something else occurs to really upset Mystra, things could get wilder, and take longer. And I’ve a few ideas in mind, believe me, but NDA BEEG NDA. :} If readers don’t like reading about a Mystra who’s still learning on the job and is a little hesitant, too bad. That’s the Mystra I see as allowing mortals the most freedom, so it’s the best Mystra for the game and for Realms fiction (and, hey, I created Mystra AND the Realms, so I think my judgement’s pretty good about such matters). Yes, I could write a ‘The New Mystra Gets Cheesed Off, And Whups Everyone!’ novel, and have a lot of slam-bang fun, but I don’t WANT to wreck the Realms. If I was a film director, I’d far rather do The Lord of the Rings than Godzilla - - and I think I’d be better at trying to do The Princess Bride than either. Links Category:Faerûnian pantheon Category:Greater deities